February 5, 2015 -- Report: Family Planning Is a Cost-effective Strategy for Climate
Control and Food Security

SAN FRANCISCO— A new
report from the University of California, San
Francisco’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health states that
access to Family Planning services is a
cost-effective strategy to addressing population growth, food
insecurity and climate change.

“More than 800 million people on the planet are chronically hungry and
climate change is accelerating,” said lead author of the report Joe Speidel, MD,
MPH. “Ongoing rapid population growth is making it much more difficult to
address these serious world problems. Voluntary family planning is a
cost-effective way to improve world food security and slow climate change.”

The report cites that improving access to family planning could provide 16 to
29 percent of the needed decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the need
to increase production of crops and meat would help stabilize the climate, in
addition to making it easier to address world hunger, since agriculture and
livestock production currently account for 30 percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions.

“This report adds to the growing body of evidence that advancing human rights
and reproductive healthcare is critical to protecting people and the planet,”
said Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the
Center for Biological Diversity. “Our sheer
numbers, along with the demands of environmentally-devastating — and growing —
industries like meat production and fossil fuels, puts incredible pressure on
our climate, our food systems and wildlife. Family planning, education and
equality are common-sense and cost-effective solutions to these global crises.”

According to the report, it would cost an estimated
$9.4 billion annually to meet the unmet need for family planning — less than
5 percent of the $209 billion annually estimated to meet the need for food in
developing countries. It’s estimated that providing family planning services
to the 225 million women worldwide who want access to modern contraception
but are unable to get it would prevent 52 million unintended pregnancies each
year.

Since the year 2000, world population has grown by 1.2 billion people — more
than the combined populations of Europe and North America.

The report recommends an increase in foreign aid to
fill the $5.3 billion gap in funds for family planning, and that the
research, policy and program communities addressing world hunger and
global warmingmake family
planning a priorityin the new Sustainable Development Goals.

The Center for Biological Diversity’s Population and Sustainability program
highlights the connections between runaway human population growth,
unsustainable over-consumption and the wildlife extinction crisis, and promotes
a range of solutions, including universal access to family planning and
reproductive healthcare, and the education and empowerment of women and girls.

The Center for
Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization
with more than 800,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection
of endangered species and wild places.